When Jennifer Jordan found out that she didn’t make it into Central Michigan University’s health professions graduate program, her life took on a whole new direction. Coming to Grand Valley State University for graduate school wasn’t part of her plan, but an online job posting connected her with the Sustainable Community Development Initiative at GVSU, where she began taking graduate courses in public administration with an emphasis in non-profit management and leadership.

Now, Jordan is 24 and in her last semester at GVSU, and though she’s searching for a job in non-profit or student affairs, she isn’t in a hurry to leave.

“This is what created that sustainability passion (in me),” Jordan said. “I know that I will be fine, but (I’m) just apprehensive with change.”

During her time as part of the SCDI, Jordan has worked on numerous projects, including the Pizza Box Program, which has been going for a year and a half, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Sustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System program, and the “How Green R U?” program.

The pizza box program focuses on composting cardboard pizza boxes, which are very difficult to recycle, given the pizza and other food grease that soaks into the cardboard and can jam up machines. The SCDI started the program to compost the boxes, and since have composted enough boxes to stack three times higher than the Eiffel Tower.

The AASHE is the umbrella organization that created STARS.

STARS is a non-competitive rating system that measures three key areas: education and research, operations, and planning, administration, and engagement. There are approximately 1,000 questions that need to be answered as part of this system, and with Jordan’s assistance in organizing the effort, the SCDI is currently working on calculating GVSU’s rate for this year.

The ‘How Green R U’ program involves a questionnaire that helps those in the GVSU community gauge how sustainable they are in their daily lives and gives them ideas on how to be more sustainable.

In her everyday life, sustainability is an integral part of who Jordan is — so much so that the people around her can’t help but take notice.

“My mom gave me a bag, and it says ‘Sustain Ability,’” Jordan said. “She’s like, ‘You get so excited when you talk about sustainability, that that’s how it comes out — sustain ability.’”

Jordan has been able to take this passion with her all over the U.S. and even worldwide — she has visited England, Northern Ireland, Belize and many places in the U.S. The SCDI even paid for her and a few peers involved in sustainability projects to go to L.A. for an AASHE conference.

Despite all the places she’s been, Jordan has come to call West Michigan her home.

“I came from Central,” she said. “That’s where I spent my four years, and the thing that surprised me is that I never called that place home. When I got to Grand Valley, when I got to Grand Rapids, I started to call this place home, which has been really rewarding.”

Her time here at GVSU comes to an end at graduation this April, and though Jordan doesn’t know exactly what the future holds, she is grateful for what she’s experience in her time here.

“It’s very unique when you talk to students and they’ve done something, like a sustainable impact, and you see that light, that light in their eyes and you can just see them developing,” Jordan said. “I think that’s the word for it. You can see them, and you can tell that they know they’ve made that immediate difference. That’s what I’m going to miss the most — that spark.”

She also said she’ll miss her coworkers, who have become like family to her, and working on the Sustainable Agriculture Project’s farm.

Bart Bartels, campus sustainability manager and member of the SCDI, said, “Attached to each one of her responsibilities is a story of Jordan making a difference, and a major impact on the Grand Valley community.”

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